Two years after leaving her post as CBC network program director, Phyllis Platt has several projects on the go at her new independent prodco, Platt Productions.

Combining her background in news and current affairs with her experience in arts and entertainment, Platt is positioning her company as a production partner to companies with an existing infrastructure, focusing on reality-based programming.

Platt has five MOWs in development, one of which is up for the next round of CTF financing. The tentatively titled Poisoned Waters, a coproduction with Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions and Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures, is a drama mirroring recent contaminated water incidents in Walkerton, ON and North Battleford, SK. The script, by Jeremy Hole (External Affairs), explores the effect of such an epidemic on an unsuspecting town. Platt is producer, with Laszlo Barna and Minds Eye’s Kevin DeWalt exec producing. The trio is currently deciding on a director from a short list of helmers. CBC is attached to the $3.3-million project, and Platt hopes to shoot this summer.

Platt Productions plans to roll out one or two MOWs per year, the next in line being a docudrama copro with Barna-Alper about a medical crisis Winnipeg experienced several years ago after a dozen babies died in pediatric cardiac care and Manitoba nurses came under fire. A story treatment has been delivered and the movie will be submitted for next year’s CTF.

Platt is also working on a concept for a reality-based series and has optioned a book she would like to adapt into a children’s movie.

Platt will be receiving the outstanding achievement award from Women in Film and Television Toronto at the Crystal Awards 2002 on April 29.

‘Being recognized by other women in the industry is special,’ she says. ‘I started out when there was just a tiny percentage of the women now in the industry. Watching that presence grow, and being part of it, has been very gratifying.’

Rowe and Leiterman on the Bay

Exterior shooting has begun on Snakehead Passage, a topical feature written, produced and directed by Peter Rowe (The Best Bad Thing) of Mississauga, ON’s Peter Rowe Productions and coproduced by the U.K.’s Harry Alan Towers (She) of Towers of London.

In late February, Rowe, legendary cinematographer Richard Leiterman (Goin’ Down the Road) and crew commenced taping on frozen Georgian Bay. The story tracks the journey of a Chinese woman smuggled out of her homeland into Vietnam, Canada, New York, and back to Canada. Twenty-five days of principal photography will proceed June through August in Ontario, with second unit work in China, B.C. and New York. Shooting so far has been on Sony 24p high-definition cameras; it has not been determined whether the entire film will be in this format, but the production will strike 35mm prints for theatrical release. There is no official word on distribution.

Casting is close to being confirmed. Casting director is Anne Tait, story editor is Barry Pearson and line producer is Allan Levine.

The production received funding from Telefilm Canada’s screenwriting assistance program. Rowe, who is chairman of the Directors Guild of Canada/Ontario, is currently wrapping post on Samuel Canard: Bridging the Atlantic for History Television, with Patrick Watson as host and exec producer.

CFC set to roll on 19 Months

Cameras will roll in Toronto March 28 on the 17-day shoot of 19 Months, a feature financed by the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project. The eleventh FFP production, and the second in the under $250,000 budget category, the plot of the comedy involves a young couple who, in order to avoid the breakup blues, decide to end their relationship before its ‘expiry date.’ In the popular film-within-a-film format, the story features a director making a documentary about the couple’s ‘new and better way.’

Randall Cole, a graduate of the CFC’s professional screenwriting program, is 19 Months’ writer/director. Cole previously directed the shorts The Green Dart and I’m the Man, the latter for The Comedy Network. Producer is Jim Mauro, who recently completed the CFC’s producer’s lab and is currently producing Evelyn – the cutest evil dead girl for the CFC’s short dramatic film program. His previous credits include the dramatic short Full and the doc Elevator: a Trip to Hear, about Canadian rock band Elevator.

19 Months will be shot in the Sony 24p HD format, with the lion’s share of post being handled at Stonehenge with eyes on fall delivery. The first film in the FFP’s ultra-low-budget category, Khaled, written and directed by Asghar Massombagi, received special mention from the FIPRESCI Jury of International Critics at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.

America’s sweetheart in Steel City

Meg Ryan will be spending a lot of time in Ontario over the next couple of months. She’s here to star in her latest feature, Paramount Pictures’ Against the Ropes, scheduled to shoot locally from March 11 to May 16 before heading to Cleveland for one week of exteriors.

The film is a fictitious drama inspired by the story of Jackie Kallen, a Detroit woman who became the manager of several champion boxers. The film also stars Omar Epps (Love and Basketball), Charles S. Dutton (Roc), Joe Cortese (Game Day), Tim Daly (The Object of My Affection) and Tony Shalhoub (The Man Who Wasn’t There). Dutton is helming, making his feature directorial debut from a script by Cheryl Edwards (Save the Last Dance). Robert Cort (Runaway Bride) and David Madden (Save the Last Dance) are producing.

The production has set up camp in Toronto Film Studios. The crew will be shooting numerous sequences in Hamilton, ON’s Copps Coliseum, which will sub for the Cleveland Coliseum. Shooting in Ontario outside of Toronto entitles productions to tax credit bonuses.

Against the Ropes is slated for a 2003 release.

Province gets post training centre

Humber College recently opened the doors to the Ontario Post-Production Training Centre, located at its north Toronto campus. Aimed at teaching post techniques including nonlinear editing, 3D animation and FX and sound mixing, the centre will offer a one-year post program for 40 students per year, part-time training for 60 students, and it will provide professionals the opportunity to continue to develop their skills.

The facility was created with a $1-million infusion from the Ontario Government’s Strategic Skills Investment program, and industry partners include Intergraph Canada, Avid, Media 100, Sony of Canada, Silicon Graphics Canada, Alias|Wavefront, Autodesk Canada, Apple Canada and the Directors Guild Of Canada/Ontario. Key members of the post community sit on the advisory board that helped draw up the curriculum for the centre’s Post-Production Certificate program.

‘The film and television industry is important to the competitiveness and strength of our province, and our government recognizes this unprecedented growth,’ says Bob Runciman, minister of economic development and trade, in a statement. ‘The centre will enable Ontario students to effectively compete in the global marketplace and will address the demands for a skilled workforce.’ *